Street Fight vs Full-contact Competition

[Yum Cha]

Firstly, I'm not a seasoned street fighter, never was.
I did random tournaments and club fighting until my late 30's.

I never had an altercation on the street that was anywhere as difficult, painful or taxing as the competition bouts, or even some of the heavier club bouts.

Almost all of my street encounters are a couple of patty-cakes and the other guy runs away. Just lucky I guess. No denying the sense of danger was a lot higher, and the level of intent was a lot higher too.

I know some of you guys have had life and death encounters, muggings, security work, military, that by comparison, are simply off the scale compared to that nonsense, and that's one reason why I'm asking.

But for the most part, have your street encounters been more or less challenging than a tough competition fight?

[uki]

i never had a competition fight, but all of my street encounters were a piece of cake. on a side note, i believe there would be a lot of extra wasted energy expenditure due to the concentration on the rules, the crowd(being public), and whatever else runs thru ones mind up there. each encounter on the street was virtually thoughtless and simply reactionary in nature.

[Lucas]

Firstly, I'm not a seasoned street fighter, never was.
I did random tournaments and club fighting until my late 30's.

I never had an altercation on the street that was anywhere as difficult, painful or taxing as the competition bouts, or even some of the heavier club bouts.

Almost all of my street encounters are a couple of patty-cakes and the other guy runs away. Just lucky I guess. No denying the sense of danger was a lot higher, and the level of intent was a lot higher too.

I know some of you guys have had life and death encounters, muggings, security work, military, that by comparison, are simply off the scale compared to that nonsense, and that's one reason why I'm asking.

But for the most part, have your street encounters been more or less challenging than a tough competition fight?

ive had several encounters over the years, the few that actually escelated to physical confrontation have been 'easier' than even medium sparring with intermediate to advanced practitioners, IME. ill say though that ive never had to square up with a mean ass mofo. every dumb ass that ive ever gotten involved with have all been just that, dumb asses.

i have however been beaten badly and have had weapon encounters. i dont count being beaten or at gunpoint as a 'street fight'. in truth it was simply a gang beating. so the reality is that 'street' situations can be far more extreme, ime. but not on average. i dont even compare weapon encounters to a sport environment or street fights.

[uki]

yeah - it's hard to relate having a loaded gun being put to your head and having a "sport fight" expedition match...

[Lucas]

lol ya. one time i was involved in a home invasion with 3 guys 2 armed with guns, and one attacking me in my sleep. huge guy, im still amazed i got out of that, i woke up to his fingers meeting his thumb squeezing my wind pipe.....thats when i learned the power of the elbow meeting the head.

as soon as i got his grasp off of my windpipe, i wrapped my legs over his arms to break his hold and basically flew to my feet. adrenaline...

at that point my entire focus was keeping that guy between me and his friends, yelling for my roomate who was sleeping in his room. he came out with a shotty and scattered them with a pump and a yell. and boy ill tell you, was that big guy ****ed, before they ran out he was so ****ed he picked up and threw a huge glass ashtray at me lol, which i ducked.

i moved that night.

[uki]

i moved that night.

smart move...

[Lucas]

smart move...

ya, heh, smartest move of my life. i know they went back.

[uki]

ya, heh, smartest move of my life. i know they went back.

i had the gun put to my head and the next morning i began the 3 day hitch-hike of 1700 miles back to pa... you always appreciate the morning after nights like that.

[Ray Pina]

But for the most part, have your street encounters been more or less challenging than a tough competition fight?

I've been very lucky where my "street encounters," which include everything from young ego knucklehead playground, high-school and too young to be in bars but in bars anyway crap, to thankfully few (4) altercations were weapons were involved, unscathed.

I can say, in hindsight, I've always just happened to react right without being the aggressor. I've stood my ground or spoken my mind and absorbed shoves, but there's been times I've struck back. My most memorable martial art moment was clinching with a surfer I know who tried to stick his thumb in my eye so I shoved him away. He regained himself and swung a hay maker and with my left I executed a perfect, effortless wave-like punch I was doing in E-Chuan at the time. It just happened. I didn't throw it and I didn't feel it land. I just saw him spin and fall... I helped him up. Walked him out. We're cool now.

Even then I got lucky? I didn't know him well. He could have held a grudge. Ran me over crossing a street. ****ed with my car. He could have sued me for breaking his nose.

The biggest lesson I learned coming down here is how nicely being humble pays off. Smile. Be friendly and non confrontational. The other side of that, is if someone still messes with you they're usually overconfident, placaded by your politeness.

The hardest I've ever had to fight for what felt like my survival, or at least my dignity, was in a San Da/kick boxing tournament. I got my a$$ kicked, round 1 TKO, by a monster. He woke me up to the fact that you can't just show up at 198 being a taco bell eating 198.

[Ray Pina]

i woke up to his fingers meeting his thumb squeezing my wind pipe.....thats when i learned the power of the elbow meeting the head.

That's insane. My best friend down here was home invaded three years ago around the block from me. He, his sister, mom and dad all tied up at gunpoint.

I haven't yet, but am getting a gun soon. Truck died today. Got to get a new one of those first.

i moved that night.

Smart move of the century!

[David Jamieson]

Been in both.

competition is way harder.

this is my experience.

street fights are over fast, you can do dirty stuff.

for instance, put someone through a plate glass window. that ends it.
hit them with a chair, that ends it,,,usually

kick them while they're down and don't let yup until someone pulls you off or they completely turtle.

competition demands way more skill, endurance and conditioning.

street fights are most of the time sloppy, dirty and short.

[Liokault]

I'v been on the reverse situation.

Being short of sparring partners, my teacher got a guy from the pub, a notoriouse street fighter, to come and spar with me. This guy was the same height as me but with arms as thick as my legs. He did the class with us as a warm up prior to sparring and frankly, he was beaten before we started.

I think he was intimidated by how hard I was hitting the target mits he was holding for me because just before we were about to start sparring he asked me to go easy on him lol.

Anyway, he couldnt do anything (and our sparring rules are more or less anything goes), not even be aggressive.

[Yum Cha]

I'v been on the reverse situation.

So, sparring a streetfighter in class wasn't much of a challenge? Bit surprising, sounds like he was out of his comfort zone.

What about the streetfight side?

[Yum Cha]

One thing about streetfights, you always have to look out for 'helpers' jumping in. That joker trying to shift his way through the crowd to get around your back for a sucker attack. Fortunately, they intimidate easily, in my experience.

[SPJ]

1. street fights

we have to be street smart, counting the odds, ways to avoid or runaway.

why? b/c bad guys will not play fair, they either use a concealed weapon, outnumber you, surprise you--

2. competition with rules and a referee.

rules will make everything as fair as possible.

same weight and age range---

the only thing left is the skill that you compete with.

if you do not concede,

there is always a chance for re match.

---